WILMINGTON, Del. — High-profile witnesses from Biden’s family, including Biden’s ex-wife and the widow of his brother Beau Biden, could take the stand this week in Hunter Biden’s trial on firearms charges.
Jurors will continue to hear prosecutors’ arguments Wednesday against President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.
Among the 12 witnesses the prosecution is expected to call are Hunter Biden’s ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle, and the mother of his youngest daughter, Landen Roberts. Beau Biden’s widow, Hallie Biden, is also expected to testify. Hallie and Hunter Biden were in a relationship after Beau Biden’s 2015 death, around the time the gun at the center of the case was purchased.
Hunter Biden is facing three felony charges for lying on a federal firearms declaration in 2018 about whether he had any drug addiction.
On the first day of testimony, jurors heard audio of Biden reading from his memoir, in which he spoke vividly about his drug use, and heard an FBI agent recount text messages, bank statements and book excerpts that described Biden’s drug use in 2018, the year the gun was purchased.
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Cross-examination of FBI agent who investigated Hunter Biden continues
FBI Special Agent Erica Jensen remained on the stand Wednesday as Hunter Biden’s defense continued to answer questions about the investigation into the president’s son.
Jensen helped prosecutors present documents, bank records and a 2021 memoir documenting Biden’s drug abuse as evidence of his illegal drug addiction.
Biden’s lawyer, Abe Lowell, began questioning Jensen on Tuesday about a drop in text message traffic in October 2018, when Biden bought the gun at issue in the federal trial.
Biden is accused of making false statements on federal forms intended to screen drug users and addicts from buying guns, but Lowell argues Biden had not intended to mislead because he had recently completed a rehabilitation program when he bought the .38 revolver.
–Bert Janssen
Jury will hear from Hunter Biden even though he didn’t take the stand
Hunter Biden has yet to testify as a witness in his trial on federal firearms charges, but the jury has already heard his testimony.
Jurors on Tuesday listened to recordings of the president’s son’s candid account of his life as an alcoholic and drug addict from his 2021 memoir, “Beautiful Things.”
“I bought crack cocaine on the streets of Washington, D.C., and made my own in a hotel bungalow in Los Angeles,” Biden said. “I wanted alcohol so badly that I had to open a bottle and take a sip just to walk the block between the liquor store and my apartment.”
-Swapna Venugopal Ramaswami
Republicans stay silent on Hunter Biden trial, focus on Trump conviction
After a year and a half of investigating Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings and struggles with drug addiction, Republicans in Congress and former President Donald Trump’s campaign have remained largely silent about his felony firearms trial, which began on Monday.
Republicans told USA Today it was not surprising they were not mentioning the trial of the president’s son, as they are still focused on Trump’s historic conviction in a hush-money case in New York last week.
Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) told USA Today that she was watching to see how Republican voters are feeling during this unprecedented time, with Trump’s base outraged by Thursday’s conviction on 34 felony counts. Hunter Biden also faces a second tax-related trial later this year.
“Republicans and independents are very angry about the wrongful conviction of former President Donald Trump,” said Republican Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, “so to change the conversation from what infuriated them to something about Hunter Biden is, no, it’s irrelevant, it’s not important.”
-Sarah D. Wyer, Ken Tran, and Riley Begin
Who is Hunter Biden?
Hunter Biden is President Joe Biden’s youngest son. He is facing three felony firearms charges in Delaware.
The first two relate specifically to paperwork Biden filled out to buy a gun in 2018, accusing him of lying about the drug use on that form.
The third charge relates to Biden possessing a firearm while he was allegedly an unlawful user or addicted to a controlled substance.
– Xerxes Wilson
What happened yesterday at Hunter Biden’s trial?
In their opening statement, the team of Justice Department special counsel David Weiss outlined their case against Hunter Biden, saying “no one is above the law.”
The defense continued later in the afternoon, arguing that Hunter Biden did not knowingly lie when he filled out paperwork denying using illegal drugs while purchasing a gun in October 2018.
Prosecutors called their first witness on Tuesday, FBI Special Agent Erica Jensen, to question her about the investigation into the president’s son.
– Xerxes Wilson
